I remember my childhood days in the early '70s when my friends and I would get together in their basement and play "house." I would be the daddy and my friend Lynn would be the mommy. Her younger sister Claire would be our little girl. A 4 foot by 4 foot miniature vinyl Barbie playhouse was our "home sweet home." It was a great time of make believe and pretend, fantasizing what the "real thing" would be like one day. Deep down, I really had a secret crush on Lynn and loved playing house with her, more than she ever knew. Besides, it took me away from the unstable family life I had at home of a real mommy and daddy who both drank and fought much of the time.

Many years later as an adult in the early '90s, I remember lying in bed together with my partner on a Tuesday night. Tuesday night was TV night for us. We'd both come home from work and after dinner, clean up and put on a pot of coffee. Then we would get into some comfy T-shirts and cuddle up with each other as we watched "Roseanne" and our other favorite shows. After the 11 o'clock news, we'd do some sit-ups, turn off the lights and peacefully fall asleep in each other's arms. I clearly remember listening to the sounds of the crickets with a cool breeze blowing through our slightly opened windows. Our bedroom was filled with the romantic pale light of the moon and the star-studded New England night sky.

As I look back at that time in my life, I remember exactly how I felt. We had it all. We were on top of the world. A beautiful home, a dog, two cats, great friends and a loving, long-term, committed "storybook" relationship. No doubt, we were going to be partners for life. OK, so it wasn't exactly as I pictured it years earlier with Lynn and Claire, but hey, he was the man of my dreams.

As I sit here now typing, burning the midnight oil, I hear those crickets outside my window. I can see that same pale moon resting in that same star-filled New England sky. My two little children are both fast asleep after daddy prayed with them and read them "Goldilocks and the Three Bears." My beautiful wife also is sleeping tranquilly after reading her Bible and saying her prayers. She prays on her knees every night for our family members, as well as countless other families and friends across the country whose loved ones are entrapped in the homosexual lifestyle.

As I look back on all those years of Tuesday TV nights with my boyfriend, I realize the homosexual lifestyle was a deceitful counterfeit of the "real" thing. My partner and I were like the children in my childhood of days gone by. We were two men who thought we had the world in the palm of our hands  when in fact, we had nothing at all. We were two lost souls, living in a world of make believe  two emotionally hurting boys playing house, desperately clinging onto each other night after night, week after week, year after year.

As homosexual men and women across the country strive for their "special rights," civil unions and ultimately same-sex marriages, I can attest firsthand these individuals are making every attempt to resolve their inner homosexual conflict. These are feelings, thoughts and actions most have had ever since childhood. Many have hidden and suppressed their homosexual feelings for so long, until they finally gave in and "came out" to the world. Their inner struggle for self-acceptance has turned into a misguided outward struggle for civil rights. With each battle won on local, state and federal levels, their pillage is America's acceptance and tolerance. While they fill their storehouses with their vain plunder, they tirelessly continue their unending life-long search for their "holy grail": self-acceptance. No matter how hard they search or how long they try, I'm afraid it is something that will never be found.

Homosexuality is clearly an outward expression of things going on much deeper in a person  issues for many originating back to their childhood.

For homosexual men, in most all cases it has everything to do with a lack of relationship with the father. For women, the problem can rest with the mother and/or father or another male figure. For some, molestation or a premature sexual experience was the lead in to the homosexual lifestyle. Whatever the factors may have been to drive someone down that unwanted homosexual path, we must remember one thing: No one was born homosexual. To state such a fact is a tragedy, as well as cop out.

Just as no one is born an alcoholic or a drug addict, the same must be said of the homosexual. "Issues" are what bring a person down these lonely, painful paths  issues when finally dealt with will allow the person to come out of their destructive behavior. You don't need to be a psychologist to figure this one out.

In 1992, I became a Christian, accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. When I fully understood the forgiveness God extended to me through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, I realized the life-changing power that lay within this efficacious act. I knew that the forgiveness that was so graciously given to me now needed to be extended by me to someone else who needed it just as much: my father.

After 28 painful years of a damaged relationship with the one man whose love I craved and desired the most, my many years of wandering and numerous homosexual encounters came abruptly to an end.

It happened one morning in my parents' kitchen. My father and I did something we never really did before  we talked. We both dealt with the past, we vented, we questioned, we understood and we healed. And in an emotional embrace I'll never forget, we both did something else: We forgave. I have never been the same man since.

In a single moment of time, the doors to my painful childhood were slammed shut once and for all, never to be opened again. My homosexual needs and desires were gone and I was changed. Completely. My heavenly Father showed me by example what I needed to give to my earthly father. I crossed that fearful heterosexual threshold that so many other brave men and women in my shoes have done before me. And in doing so, I found something I never could have imagined  the cure for homosexuality. Forgiveness.

Our acceptance and tolerance of the ever-growing homosexual deviancy in America today is really a paradox. You see, we are actually committing a grave injustice toward these misled men and women. We're not helping these people by affirming them, but actually hurting them even further. By enabling them to remain emotionally stunted and trapped in their pasts, we as a society play a major part in keeping them from their potential futures. And according to the Bible, as a nation, our acceptance and tolerance of homosexuality will keep us from our potential future as well.

I've found the cure for homosexuality. Forgiveness. Share it with your "gay" and lesbian friends. Give them some food for thought.

No doubt I am on a mission today: to bring the truth about homosexuality to the world  that no one is born homosexual, it has everything to do with the childhood, and complete change is possible. Completely possible. From the calls that are coming in weekly around the country from homosexual men and women themselves, I can tell you, this message is making a major impact ... one forgiving heart at a time.

You are right, God's shoulders are big enough--because we can't do it on our own.

It has been a real weird morning. A guy we work with died in a car wreck on the way here, and we had some other bad news on top of that. But, God is in charge. Some things are best left in Hs hands. Escape from a destructive, sinful existence like homosexuality is possible--if you give it to the Lord.

I have a gay friend who has led a horrible, horrible life. He has always hated his father (a mean, horrible man), and never felt the wonder of true fatherly love. My friend says he can never forgive his father. I wonder how he would be changed if he could.

These are feelings, thoughts and actions most have had ever since childhood. Many have hidden and suppressed their homosexual feelings for so long, until they finally gave in and "came out" to the world. Their inner struggle for self-acceptance has turned into a misguided outward struggle for civil rights.

I strongly suspect that every man and woman alive has struggled and is struggling with some hidden, suppressed temptation(s) that he or she cannot simply wish away. The Christian is called to resist the temptation, to seek forgiveness when resistance fails, and to carry on the struggle anew--never justifying, never excusing. Over time the Lord burnishes and perfects the soul of Christian who is faithful in the struggle.

As Paul reported, God's strength is made perfect in the weakness of the faithful Christian.

In the case of a person who breaks free of the homosexual lifestyle there is an added bonus in the here-and-now, for he escapes a disease-ridden and grossly dysfunctional way of life that can never truly satisfy because it is a wholly counterfeit way of life.

It is wonderful that the author of this piece escaped a lie and found Life.

The article didn't mention another path to homosexuality--recruitment on college campuses by "friends" on the make and liberal, politically-correct professors and a willing media who entice audiences to think that homosexuality is the preferred "normal" life choice. I was shocked during a college reunion in 1995 when almost every poster on campus was about overcoming your homophobia, etc. (you'd think that homophobia was the only problem facing the campus or the world) as well as illustrations on the bathroom mirrors for how to perform lesbian acts. Needless to say, I haven't been back and they will NEVER get another dime from me!

My husband of 11 years, and the father of my four children, confessed his homosexuality and left home to live with a man. Thirty years had passed until it came his time to die with lung cancer, and I was at the hospital, beside his bed. He said to me, "I wish I had lived my life for Jesus", and I said, "but could you have?" and he said, "Yes, I could have."

My aunt provides social counseling for drug addicts. She told me that the other day she had required training on how to deal with Homosexuals. The clinics couselors were trained among other things never tell homosexuals they are doing something wrong. They have to make them feel extra special for being homosexual.

My aunt says that the correlation between destructive behavior and homosexuality is obvious to the most jaded counselors and most disagreed with the training. But, they were told this was one issue they could be fired on if they didn't comply. She also said that when she previously tried to indirectly show her patients that their lifestyle was causing them problems, perhaps they should consider changing "certain things"? The patients pretty much felt that they were special, better that others, and had heightened awareness of life for being homosexual. Amazing!!

"For homosexual men, in most all cases it has everything to do with a lack of relationship with the father"

A group of church leaders in Little Rock Arkansaw put an ad in the paper: "Learn how to be a man, Meeting at 6am on Wednesdays". 1,000 men showed up.........The need is great, read the article on Noble Masculinity again.

What happened to you is not unique. My aunts husband left his four children and her after 15 years of marriage. My wifes father left her and her sister after 7 years of marriage. Homosexuality destroys more than the souls of the participants; it often takes those who are closest along for the ride.

But what about people who are comfortable and fulfilled in gay relationships?

Of course this is an anectdotal tale.The author essentially says: I once was a homosexual. Something happened to me that changed me. I am no longer a homosexual. This can happen to others as well.

So what about the others who are "comfortable and fulfilled"? According to this guy even when they say that they are not truly happy or fulfilled. Who is he to judge? Well his word carries more weight than most of us since he was a homosexual for many years and is delighted with the change.

Just because it is anecdotal doesn't mean it has no value. On the contrary here is a convert from homosexuality that wants others to find what he has found! I think the article has created quite a stir as the WorldNet.com web site is jammed to capacity and has been for a few hours. I'm hoping that many in the homosexual lifestyle find this forgiveness that Stephen found and walk away from this bondage.

You see clubs that form around being fat and proud of it. Do you actually believe them? Or do you suspect that they are trying to promote their own self-esteem? I know what I think, that there is an ideal happiness in Jesus and this man was fortunate enough to find it.

Many won't and they'll profess to be very happy. That doesn't change this man's testimony to being delighted with Jesus and the new life he's been given. I have found the same new life in Jesus and know of what he is talking about. I'm not going back to where I was either, which at the time was the hippie drug culture.

No he said, Just as no one is born an alcoholic or a drug addict  that was his point and mine. As far as pedophilia, I of course meant children capable of consent mentally and not legally but dont let your hypocrisy be bruised. As far as incest and bestiality Ill take your non-response response as your affirmation to its moral equivalencies.

So what about the others who are "comfortable and fulfilled"? According to this guy even when they say that they are not truly happy or fulfilled. Who is he to judge? Well his word carries more weight than most of us since he was a homosexual for many years and is delighted with the change.

Well, then, my word should carry as much weight as his: I am a homosexual, am comfortable and fulfilled in my (homosexual) relationship of many years standing, and think that people who say I'm not comfortable and fulfilled based on their experience don't know my mind.

You see clubs that form around being fat and proud of it. Do you actually believe them? Or do you suspect that they are trying to promote their own self-esteem? I know what I think, that there is an ideal happiness in Jesus and this man was fortunate enough to find it.

So you only believe anecdotal testimony from those whose position supports what you were inclined to believe before they even opened their mouths? It doesn't sound to me as if you really care what people say about themselves -- you already know better than they do!

Your welcome. Of course. And I am never happy when I consider the pretend life homosexuals must suffer in order to sustain a semblance of reality. I love you because God loves you, but I don't accept nor delight in the fact that you are afflicted, for some reason, with such a lifestyle. So you are right-I am never happy when discussing homosexual behavior because it evokes an incredibly sad lifestlye.

I'm not answering your pedophile-baiting question. I'm not wasting my time arguing with someone who doesn't have the moral clarity to see the difference between consenting adults and child molestation.

Except that child molesters claim to HAVE consent. To them, it is a normal consequence of their sexual orientation.

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